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Mickey Hart Reprimes The Pump

How did you get the idea to re-examine those particular songs— “Playing in the Band” and “Greatest Story Ever Told?”

I was telling [the members of the Mickey Hart Band] how I conceived the beginnings of both those songs. I took the pump, we recorded the water pump, and used that as the basic track for “Greatest Story,” called the “Pump Song” on my solo album Rolling Thunder and then for “Playing in the Band,” I told them about that. And I realized, Jesus, those were things we never played. Let’s try it out. Let’s listen to the recording. For me, that is ancient history. It was like 1970, right? Something like that. That’s a long time ago. We went back and really enjoyed it. I remember putting a lot of time in it. On playing in the band on my record Stephen Stills was playing toilet seat bass.

What is that?

In the studio was a toilet seat with a fret board coming off the toilet seat. And Stephen walks in and says ‘Put a bass on here. Give me a bass.’ The only thing I had the toilet seat. And it sounds great.

Is this true? Are you kidding me?

No. Why would I kid you?

OK—So please, go ahead.

We built something really beautiful but never played it live. So you take forward stuff that rises above, the cream. You think, “Wow, that might have been out of tune but it certainly was charming.” So if I go back, I like to change it in some way that improves it if I can.

There is so much music out there to play; I wouldn’t want to get locked into one repertoire in a non-Grateful Dead band. Which this is. This isn’t a Grateful Dead-centric band. We do play a goodly amount of great songs and they come in and of course they play very enthusiastically with a lot of passion and with a lost of vision. That is really important to bring to the music or otherwise you are just beating stuff up.

How do you balance the nostalgia and the newer music projects? I would think the nostalgia could become a bit tiresome after all this time.

It all depends. Familiarly and nostalgia are very powerful feelings and people really love that. And I can’t knock that. It is part of the human condition. After a while you have to make a cut. There are only so many hours in the day. What kind of music do you listen to? Music with a current edge to it or music with nostalgia? Both have their value.

Music appeals to a lot of different people on a lot of levels. You can’t say nostalgia is bad. I’ve seen some music that was written 50 years ago and played for people with some kind of impairment like Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease. When the music is played, someone who hasn’t spoken for years has spoken because they remember the time and place they heard the song. Song has the ability to lock you into time and place. That is very important music can lock you into time and place. Music creates a virtual reality. It creates another reality.

Music as medicine, to me, is the most important and exciting frontier for music in this century. Besides performing, I love to be a performer; the science of music is fascinating and something I want to continually explore.

The new music you’ve created seems incredibly sophisticated. Can you talk about the challenge of playing it on tour?

That’s the trick! That is the art, to take things that are fairly sophisticated like that and bring it to your city night after night! Let’s just say that is the art form. To be able to perform and have fun with all of this.

I created instruments that do this, that are quite sophisticated and complex, but very easy when you get the hang of playing them. We are out there birthing this stuff. This is about journey and adventure and birthing this kind of music. It is a work in progress and very spirited and we work really hard making it at least entertaining and hopefully memorable on a lot of levels and it is also a culmination of my life this far.

I see myself as a work in progress and so is the Dead and so is the Mickey Hart Band and it’s really intense because we are really hard at work on all of it. This is not like a hobby. It is like you become very desperate to find the sound and the rhythm you can taste it. It is so energetic and it’s just coming out in waves and when that happens, you can’t look the other way. That is what is happening with this band.

So we’re hearing lot about the new album you have coming. When will it be released?

Sometime in August. We have been working at a breakneck speed, but I haven’t been able to get things done fast enough. Sometimes the muse is with you, sometimes the muse goes. It’s addictive but you have to balance it with your life. You can’t party as much; you don’t spend as much time with your family even though you want to spend time with your family. But the muse is tugging at you, he’s got his hand around your throat and he’s pulling you into the studio and you can’t break free. Music is like an opiate.

So everyone seems very upset about Bob and what has happened with him. What would you say to them?

Just relax, you know?

Bob will be ok. He will be fine. He just needs to take a step back. He will be totally fine. He is totally fine. He needs the rest man.

Man, Bob is a love, man. He is my brother. We have a very, very, very, very — that’s four verys — deep bond. He will be all right. He just needs to rest.